Thai trials CMI 90mm turret on their BTR-3E1

Thanks to Info-infanterie for the link.

via Live Journal.

I know that would be happen ! Just like rumours I've heard ,the MGS for mechanized infantry regiment(s) has been tested . I don't know whether It has been chosen or not but This is another confirmation of the MGS requirement. The Army has sought for establishing the "SBCT wanna be " regiment(s) **(A.K.A. mechanized infantry regiment) for a long time ,the oldest record I have is 20+ years ago (and the winner was Piranha or LAV ,If my memory served me right) but the economic crisis in '97 struck down all military programs (e.g. RTAF- F-18C/D ,RTN -subs and RTA -AFVs) . And 3 years ago ,the dream to mechanized the infantry came true . The BTR-3E1 project fulfilled the wish of highly mobile infantry with reasonable firepower but there are some missing puzzles ,the MGS ,which will provide the heavy punches for this (these) regiment(s),IMO,this 90 mm is more than enough firepower to support the infantry (but 105 should do some jobs better,i.e. tank hunting .)

But there're still some problems with the SBCT wanna be regiment(s) such as the artillery that is not Self propelled , the Ukraine's problem which still plagues the delivery of 2nd phase BTRs and other future shortcomings,e.g. The indigenous 8x8 program which will be denied common logistics with BTR equipped regiment , the Ukraine's political problems which will lead to logistical problem of all Ukrainian's equipments .

Just like Buddha said "You shouldn't chase after the past or place expectations on the future." I just love this MGS !
Photos Credit : Army Eastern Command .(Burapha Command )

It keeps happening but the USMC seems to be ignoring the development.

The fight in the Pacific will not be infantry vs. infantry.  It will not be dominated by air power in the jungle canopy or in the dense urban centers that dot the landscape.

The nations of that region are armoring up!  Everywhere you look all you see is either armor in development or serious upgrade programs that aim to make them more lethal.

The current focus on "Company Landing Teams"..."Distributed Operations from the sea"....and "Dispersed Amphibious Ready Groups" will lead to our forces being deployed in a piecemeal fashion and then found, fixed and destroyed by the enemy at their leisure. 

The focus is all wrong.  We never left the sea...but we ARE having a time leaving the counter insurgency war in the desert!

F-35 News. Failure is confirmed by the budget.

Thanks to Slowman for the link.

Among other topics, the research effort will work closely on what 6th–generation fighter aircraft technologies will be needed to build an aircraft to succeed the 5th–generation F-35...DoD Buzz

via Yahoo

The Pentagon said on Wednesday its fiscal 2016 budget proposal will fund early technology development and prototyping of a "next-generation X-plane" that would eventually succeed the F-35 fighter jet being developed and built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
Defense Undersecretary Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief arms buyer, said the funding would be part of a new "aerospace innovation initiative" aimed at ensuring that the U.S. military continued to dominate the skies despite development of so-called fifth-generation stealth fighters by China and others.
He told the House Armed Services Committee the initiative would be headed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with help from the Air Force and the Navy.
Speaking with reporters during a break in the hearing, Kendall declined to give details on the amount of funding involved in the new initiative since the Pentagon's budget will not be delivered to Congress until Monday.

Don't listen to the talking points.

Watch the budget.

And what does this budget request tell us?  It says that the F-35 is a complete and utter failure.  It says that it will not deliver as promised and that the services will make it work...at least for awhile, but that a replacement needs to be worked on now.

Have you noticed something else?  We don't hear talk about the F-35 serving until 2050 anymore.  Also consider this.  Before this airplane has made it into service the replacement is being planned.

Armed Chinese Drone downed in Nigeria!

Thanks to Tom for the link.

Read the story here.

Typhoon in the vertical.

RAF Typhoon Aircraft from 29(R) Sqn

A Royal Air Force Typhoon jet in a vertical climb over RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire.The aircraft is sporting its newly painted tail depicting 29 Reserve Squadron (29(R)Sqn).

One of the roles of the Typhoon is to protect our national airspace by securing our skies, to do this they maintain a constant Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) force around the clock.

The RAF’s Typhoons are also providing support to NATO by carrying out the Baltic Air Policing role.

5 Separatist Tactical Battle Groups (with Russian Airborne) operating near Debaltseve bridgehead, Ukraine.

via Chapter 97.

Over the recent days the Russian-terrorist troops continued to accumulate forces and resources in the area of the Debaltseve bridgehead.
This is stated by Dmytro Tymchuk on his Facebook page citing the operational data of the Information Resistance, Censor.NET reports.
According to the group's data, at the moment five battalion tactical groups (BTG) of the enemy (at least one of them includes Russian airborne troops) and three composite artillery groups are fighting in different parts of the bridgehead. In addition, there are numerous small formations of the terrorists in the area, which are armed with individual samples of heavy infantry weapons.
"The total number of the Russian-terrorist troops engaged in fighting for Debaltseve foothold is about 2,500 people, up to 35 tanks, about 50 armored combat vehicles, 50 cannon artillery units (including SP guns), as well as at least 22 MLRS units," Tymchuk said.
In addition, he noted that in the area of Debaltseve after an unsuccessful attempt to storm through Troitske to Svetlodarsk, the enemy retreated to their original positions and is restoring the level of combat readiness.
"There is movement of militants' reinforcements through Stakhanov (up to 12 vehicles, mostly covered military trucks, and about 18 armored vehicles). In the area of Vuhlehirsk and in the direction of Svetlodarsk reservoir the enemy continues to accumulate additional tactical reserves, thus preserving significant strike potential of its units," Tymchuk said.

True?  False?  Propaganda?  Real deal info?

I just don't know.

Argentina seeking to buy Chinese VN-1 Wheeled IFVs. via Defesanet News Agency

The minister of defense of argentina, agustin rossi received a delegation of the people's republic of china, on the day 23 january, to treat on topics related to the production for defence, on the eve of the visit We will hold president kirchner to the asian country in february.
The ministry of defence, through the argentine minister agustin rossi, claims that one of the negotiations in progress is That comes from the purchase of a figure has not specified of tanks, but that can reach the hundreds . the model that is being evaluated is vn - 1 ( name of export zbl - 09 ), That was recently acquired by the naval infantry of venezuela.

Slowly but surely....despite economic problems...Argentina is rearming thanks to China's largesse.

The direction they take with fighter planes will be telling.  The delegation to visit China will be with hat in hand and a list of arms to be "loaned"....I wonder if they'll petition for the J-31?

Scheduled NATO Exercise comes at interesting time. Photo by Spc. Tyler Kingsbury

A U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicle of Pale Horse Troop, 4th Squadron, 2nd Cavalry Regiment provides security while conducting an overwatch during exercise Allied Spirit at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Jan. 25, 2015. Exercise Allied Spirit includes more than 2,000 participants from Canada, Hungary, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the U.S. Allied Spirit is exercising tactical interoperability and testing secure communications within alliance members

Exercise Allied Spirit was scheduled well in advance of current events in Europe but it comes at an interesting time.

According to the Army's Green Book it was to host approx 3000 soldiers with 22 participating nations.  They might have hit that mark but aren't releasing all the names of the nations attending for .... diplomatic....reasons.

Russia's response to this exercise, the stationing of a US Army Heavy Brigade near their border and US attempts to woo India into our circle should be a point of interest for anyone covering military affairs.

What's that old saying about not poking the bear?

News that will change your life. Greece is about to default.

Major Hat Tip to Bayou Man Blog.






The below is taken from Bayou Man's Blog from the above video.

Q. You owe the ECB 6 million dollars are you not going to pay?

A: Well, if you look at the existing agreement, the existing agreement recognizes that, ah, we can't pay. And it imposes upon us the very strange notion that as a bankrupt state, we must borrow money from our partners - even more money than they've already given us - to repay a central bank which is in the process of printing one trillion Euros. Now, you only have to state this to realize that this is not a God-given, Divine imperative which Europe shouldn't be discussing.

This is going to shake the financial markets to the core.

I know I'm sounding like chicken little but do yourself and your family a favor.  Prepare for drama.  Work while the sun is shining because this could be the first of many indicators of global storms coming.  Make no mistake about it.  A Greek default (even if they try a little word judo to make it sound like something different) will change your life.

NOTE:  The danger here isn't the amount of money involved in the Greek economy.  The danger revolves around a European country seeing default as the answer to its economic problems...along with the idea that in doing so it could have to move away from the Euro.  That could have knock on effects.  What happens if this spreads like a contagion to other countries in economic trouble?  This isn't a threat to the EU.  This is a threat to the enter house of cards that is the global economic system.

15th MEU conducts heliborne extraction training. Photos by Cpl. Steve H. Lopez

Note:  According to the caption on these photos, the Combat Logistics Element was doing "external extraction" training.  I don't know what that is.  If anyone knows, feel free to get me up to speed.  My Google skills let me down and I don't know if this is some kind of fancy vehicle recovery or what!

The military took a hobby and made it "bad"...

If you're a guy of a certain age then you're familiar with remote control aircraft.  For hobbyist they've gotten bigger, certainly more advanced but thats to be expected with the march of time.

What is unexpected is that any remote control airplane, helicopter or even tank (yeah there are some fantastic remote control armored vehicles...some quite large) that you mount a Go-Pro camera on suddenly becomes a drone!

But this is the part that has me concerned...

Obama said drones have the potential to empower people in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago, but the federal government is trying to catch up with the technology’s progression in order to enact laws that ensure safety and privacy. He said a goal in his final years as president "is seeing if we can start providing some sort of framework that ensures that we get the good and minimize the bad.”

Just wow.

A worldwide hobby is going to probably bite the dust because it was militarized and then regulated out of existence.

I believe in a strong defense but joys are being crushed in order to keep nuts, perverts and fools from abusing something that has brought joy to many.

And that sucks.

Falcon Heavy | Flight Animation

Canadian Forces - Exercise RAFALE BLANCHE 2015

Bombogenesis? Bombo-idiocy!

This is from NBC News...yesterday....

While millions of Americans gear up for likely historic snowfall this week, they should also prepare for a blizzard of the latest meteorological buzzword: bombogenesis. In simple terms, bombogenesis is the equivalent of a "meteorological bomb," according to The Weather Channel's Kevin Roth. It occurs when a storm's area of lowest pressure experiences a rapid drop of more than 24 milibars in 24 hours. "This turns a routine storm into an intense storm very quickly," Roth told NBC News.
While not uncommon for this time of year, a period of bombogenesis between midday Monday and midday Tuesday could trigger record snow. More than two feet of snow is expected to bring "paralyzing, crippling" conditions for a 250-mile stretch from Philadelphia, through New York and Boston to northern New England. "This storm has a bundle of energy," Roth said. When bombogenesis starts to happen, coupled with the cold air over the U.S. hitting the warm Gulf Stream, "that's when the show will really begin," he added.

Conspiracy hat on.

I TRULY BELIEVE that they were going to slingshot from this "historic" snow storm straight into a push for a carbon tax and intensified talk of global warming...oh wait, they call it climate change now.

Bombogenesis?  Bombo-idiocy!  Someone, somewhere tell me where that term came from!  I'm fairly well informed and never heard it before this storm.

This was a made for TV event for some agenda and it fell flat.  I LOVE IT.

Thought for the day via Grunt Works.

General Butler's Wikipedia page is here.

The latest from China Defense Blog...

China Defense Blog has a couple of must reads up.  The first covers cold weather training that Chinese Marines are undertaking...read it here.

The next covers a top attack projectile designed to destroy heavy armor.  Isn't it time we deployed TROPHY on our vehicles?

Drink it in.  The Chinese are making moves.

Army Sgt Berghdahl to be charged with desertion?

via The Blaze.

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was reportedly held captive by Taliban militants for five years, will be charged with desertion for leaving his post, according to sources of retired Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer. Bergdahl was only released after President Barack Obama negotiated with the terrorists, agreeing to release five prisoners from Guantanamo Bay.
Shaffer, senior fellow at the London Center for Policy Research, told Bill O’Reilly on Monday night that his sources have confirmed the Army has concluded its investigation and Bergdahl’s lawyer has been given a “charge sheet” informing him of the desertion charge.“This has been done, the decision has been made,” Shaffer asserted. “And let me be very clear, as a corporate entity, the Army has decided that they want to pursue Bergdahl for this violation.”
It’s important to note that Shaffer’s claims have yet to be confirmed by the U.S. Army or government officials.
He said the next step in the case will be similar to the grand jury process. If the charges stand, the Bergdahl case will proceed to a court-martial, according to Shaffer. Watch the interview via “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News:

My view.

The US Army had no choice.  The military is already facing a morale issue and if they had let Berghdahl skate without any consequences...especially considering the casualties his unit took trying to find him...then recruiting, retention and support for the service would crater.

I'm betting that there is still a way out for the Army on the back end though.  I don't expect any severe, realistic and justified punishment.  Probably a slight slap on the wrist, with service officials saying that his time in captivity was punishment enough and that although he's guilty of desertion he will not face time in the Brig.

The bigger issue will be ignored though.

We traded a deserter for five terrorists.  We're not talking about a serviceman that was captured while doing his duty, but a guy who left a forward operating base because he wanted to...even though he was well aware that he was in a war zone (I won't even touch on his crazy ass father).

The American people won't pay attention to this story but its telling none-the-less.  They'll focus on the elite smearing the reputation of a real hero (Chris Kyle), they'll be outraged over deflated footballs (a child's game that grown men are paid to play) but they'll ignore this.

I'd be amazed if I wasn't so ashamed.

Average Guy World of Tanks ...T69 game play

I'm still trying to work all this stuff out when it comes to publishing videos.  I bought the license to bandicam so the watermark will be going away and the vids will include the entire game in the future.

Still trying to figure out how to include the results screen at the end but that'll come with time.

Sidenote;  Still laughing my ass off at the Northeast United States and this idiocy with a snow storm.  The latest craziness?  A REPORTER asked the mayor if bicycle delivery was allowed during the storm!  The people in those cities eat out so much that daily food delivery is a way of life?  I DON'T GET IT!  The NE is definitely different from the rest of the country...well except for probably the West Coast.

NORTHEAST USA! Grow some damn nuts! Warning ... RANT!

I've been attempting to monitor the news today to check on events in Egypt (did you know that 17 people have been killed in renewed rioting)...Ukraine (fighting has intensified), the Middle East (ISIS is wanting to trade a female prisoner in Jordan for the remaining Japanese hostage...and I missed the broadcast but the name of the female ISIS hostage was leaked by the President's Chief of Staff) and elsewhere.

What do I find instead?

News about a freaking snow storm!

Who gives a shit!

Its gonna snow.  You might even get to record "snow thunder" and put it on YouTube.  If you're like the people I hang out with you'll get to test your preps and there was no hurry to rush to the grocery store to stock up...you have alternate heating if the electricity goes out...you're ready.

This happens every year but people act as if they're experiencing it for the first time...EVERY FUCKING YEAR!!!!!!

I won't even get into the declaration of a state of emergency and the ordering of people off the roads.  If you're stupid enough to drive in snow drifts then you deserve the Darwin Award and should not be fined....just buried deep.

I don't know what's going on with the US.

Are we really this pussified that a simple snow storm causes people to lose their minds?  If we are...and it sure seems like it...then there is no way we can win the future.

RANT OFF.

A must follow...Dmitry Tymchuk's military blog

via Kyiv 

Editor's Note: To counter Russian propaganda lies about the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula on Feb. 27, Dmitry Tymchuk has set up the Center of Military and Political Research in Kyiv. He served in the Army air defense from 1995-1998, the National Guard from 1998-2000 and in the Defense Ministry in subsequent years on missions to Iraq, Lebanon and Kosovo. His blogs are translated into English by Voices of Ukraine. The Kyiv Post has not independently verified his findings, but will correct any misinformation brought to our attention at news@kyivpost.com or 38-044-591-3344 or any of our contacts at www.kyivpost.com/contacts.

Russian-terrorist troops continue active operations in the conflict zone in Donbas. After a number of unsuccessful advance attempts, a large-scale regrouping of Russian forces and illegal armed formations is underway. We have reports of maneuvers by insurgent forces and equipment in all sections of the ATO [Anti-terrorist operation] zone.
On Jan. 23-24, units of Russian-terrorist troops attempted to push back Ukrainian troops in the area of Pisky. The enemy attacked the positions of Ukrainian troops in several sections, consecutively, using several infantry groups (total strength of 350-400 insurgents) and up to 25 armored vehicles, supported by cannon and rocket artillery. Met with powerful retaliation and incurring significant losses, Russian troops were forced to fall back to their initial positions.

NOTE!!!!  I'm lost in the woods when it comes to this conflict.  Up is down, down is up and sideways is normal.

Dmitry's blog give another perspective and in situations like this I want as many views as I can get to try and piece it all together to come up with a reasonable image of whats actually going on.  I'm not endorsing his blog but simply saying that it should be used as another information piece to help those that are interested arrive at some of the truth to this conflict.

SIDENOTE:  William sent me a link that has Russian ratings cut to JUNK STATUS.  If they can get loans in the future it will be at astronomical rates.  Whoever is designing this game against the Russians has gone from playing with fire to juggling hand grenades.  Again!  Put aside your normalcy bias and imagine what we would do if someone was actually doing damage to our economy.  Now think about Russian reaction when they believe that's what we're doing (still giving the administration the benefit of the doubt...even though evidence mounts against them).  This could actually lead to war.

Boeing KC-46 Tanker test aircraft completes first flight

Why is IAI able to convert civilian freight aircraft into tankers with little effort but it takes an entire design team and many years for the USAF to get a tanker based on a airliner into service?

What is the choke point for simple/fast acquisition of new gear?